Florida Oaks

[witchdoctor]

Just got home from vacation and had a few messages on my answering machine inquiring about a mare I bought who happens to be the mother(1st dam) of R Last Joy who won the Oaks. I was curious if anybody saw the race and if so what were their opinions of the winner.

[saratoga guy]

I was at the track that day for the Derby and the very nice undercard... R Lady Joy looked like the real deal winning the Oaks. The field wasn't that impressive. The favorite was Toll Taker. That one had taken the G3 Astarita at Belmont last fall - so there was a little bit of class there, but she had been toasted by Maddalena in her 2005 debut. Followed-up with a win in a $60K stake at Tampa.

The second favorite was Even Again. This one had only raced three times and had broken her maiden last time out. She was a $270K yearling buy and was trained by John Ward. But the fact that a runner eligible for NW1 was the 3-1 second choice tells a lot about the field.

Still, R Lady Joy was very impressive winning off by nine (she had also just broken her maiden in her last, winning that day by seven).

Here's an article about her owner, who is based in the Tampa area.

From the article:

They currently are pointing R Lady Joy to the Grade 2, $250,000 Fantasy Stakes on April 15 at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

"I want to pick the right spots for her so I don't have to abuse her to win a race," said Ziadie, who also won TBD's $75,000 Holiday Inn Express Stakes with Whenthedoveflies. "I think she was about 80 percent (for the Florida Oaks), and I knew she could win that race by the length of the stretch at 80 percent."

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/sports/11234355.htm